Panelo admits meeting with Sanchez’s family over executive clemency request

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Tuesday admitted that he had met with the family of convicted rapist-murderer Antonio Sanchez over their request for executive clemency for the former Laguna mayor.

At a news conference, Panelo said the meeting took place in Malacañang after Sanchez’s daughter, Marie Antonelvie, sent an email to his office on February 8 regarding the request.

He said President Rodrigo Duterte was aware of the meeting although he did not mention to the Chief Executive the request for clemency.

“It was an email and then they came and I told them exactly we will refer the same, as we all refer all. We can’t do anything about it,” said the Palace official, a former lawyer of Sanchez.

“In fact, to be very frank, I didn’t even recognize them because I saw them 27 years ago, when they were still very young.”

Panelo said he met with the Sanchez family in his official capacity and that it was recorded by his office.

“This is recorded, anybody can look over the record. It’s there, anybody can see. It’s open,” he said.

Panelo referred Marie Antonelvie’s letter to the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP) on February 26, asking the agency to evaluate it and make the appropriate action.

The Palace spokesperson said he did not see the need to distance himself from the matter because what he did was only to refer the letter to the BPP.

“And I refer all kinds of letters, the same. I don’t want to be accused by anyone that just because I’m a lawyer I would be not doing anything for an official communication, which as a matter of policy by the Office of the President is for me or this office to respond immediately,” he said.

BPP Executive Reynaldo Bayang, in a letter to Panelo on March 19, said the board denied Sanchez’s appeal, citing the “gravity of the offenses” the former Calauan, Laguna mayor had committed.

Sanchez was sentenced to lengthy jail terms in 1995 for raping and killing University of the Philippines-Los Baños student Eileen Sarmenta and murdering her friend and fellow UPLB student Allan Gomez in 1993. — RSJ, GMA News